BlackRock Inc. said Som Seif, who founded and led the Canadian investment unit it agreed to buy in January from Guggenheim Partners LLC, will leave the company this month to pursue other opportunities.

Seif, 35, was president and chief executive officer of Toronto-based Claymore Investments Inc., which managed US$6.9 billion in exchange-traded and closed-end funds when BlackRock made the deal. The firm, the world’s largest money manager, didn’t name a successor in a statement Monday announcing the departure.

BlackRock, which has pushed for more transparent labelling of exchange-traded products to help investors identify risks, said today it will liquidate a $2.6 million Canadian ETF because of its speculative nature. The fund was designed to rise in value when an index linked to 10-year Canadian government bonds fell.

Assets in the Claymore Inverse 10-Year Government Bond ETF had fallen from $4.9 million in the past 11 months. The fund will be terminated by June 22 and the money returned to investors, BlackRock said in a statement.